Citizen Participation in Housing Requisition in Shanghai

The changing regulatory regime in Shanghai requires residents' participation to approve housing requisition decisions for inner-city redevelopment projects. Such policy reform creates a new discourse for urban redevelopment and housing requisition schemes. This article examines how and to what extent government authorities shape citizen participation in residential relocation and housing requisition in Shanghai. The analysis of this regulation regime helps us to better understand the importance of the role of residents in the decision-making of inner-city redevelopment. This article concludes by discussing policy implications of the regulations, including equitable outcomes particularly benefiting disadvantaged groups of people.     

REFORMULATING URBAN REGIME THEORY: The Division of Labor Between State and Market Reconsidered

ABSTRACT: Urban regime theory has emerged as the dominant paradigm for the study of local politics. The ascendancy of regime theory has made it the subject of intense critical scrutiny. While urban scholars generally find it to be a valuable theoretical advance, many have uncovered conceptual limitations. This article develops yet another critique of urban regime theory. It argues regime theory suffers from an overly rigid and largely static conceptualization of the division of labor between state and market and identifies three alternative conceptualizations of this division. This exercise demonstrates the possibilities for building alternative urban regimes. It therefore suggests an enrichment of established urban regime typologies. Specifically, the article points to the existence of three previously unidentified regime types. These three urban regimes challenge the enduring tension in urban governance between a city's economic aspirations for vibrant development and its political aspirations for a vibrant democracy.     

SCALES,REGIMES, AND THE URBAN GOVERNANCE OF GLASGOW

ABSTRACT: Over the last two decades, urban regime theory has become one of the most dominant paradigms of thought in urban studies. In particular, regime theory offers a complex account of urban governance, or how local governments, the business communities, and community organizations gain the capacity to shape the policies that affect cities, that is, govern. Although regime theory is a dominant theory in urban studies, it does, nevertheless, have its share of detractors, and one criticism has been its failure to take into account geographical scale. While there is an acknowledgment in urban regime theory of wider economic processes, such as the broad transformations in international and national trade, investment, finance, etc., or the role played by federal or state governments, the bias has remained mostly local, particularly in regards to urban governance. In urban regime theory literature the policies and actions of international and national institutions either nicely conjoin with local interests or are nearly totally absent. Due to this oversight, urban regime theory tends to underemphasize how the capacity to govern a city effectively is sometimes the result of the interaction of actions of people at multiple scales. This article attempts to address this oversight in an analysis of Glasgow, Scotland, during the 1980s. By focusing on the role of the European City of Culture in the revitalization of the city, this article demonstrates how the capacity for a ruling coalition to transform the city and to govern effectively was the consequence of the policy and administrative actions undertaken at other geographical scales.     

URBAN POLITICAL REGIME FORMATION: A Study in Contrast

ABSTRACT: Urban political economists in the 1980s have focused much of their attention on urban development and the politics of growth. Urban political regime analysis has made a significant contribution to our understanding of the political economy of urban development. This study applies regime analysis to two cities— Boston and Detroit—with starkly different economic contexts to determine the relationship between uneven development and the form and policy focus of urban political regimes.     

BEFORE AND AFTER THE CREATIVE CITY: THE POLITICS OF URBAN CULTURAL POLICY IN AUSTIN,TEXAS

ABSTRACT: This article examines the politics and practice of urban cultural policy in Austin, Texas. I demonstrate how aspects of the local context frame how local government and cultural sector interests strive to initiate the direction of policy. While larger trends—such as Richard Florida's creative city thesis—influence cultural policy and planning, specific contextual factors including prior economic development and growth management policy, departmental organization, the forum for interaction between municipal actors and non‐governmental coalitions, and the character of the city's cultural economy mediate such trends to produce policy outcomes. As this case shows, contemporary urban cultural policy is not simply due to the rise of the creative city discourse, but is an evolving product of past policy structures and shaped by local institutions and actors.     

Social Change: Urban Governance and Urbanization in Zimbabwe

Urbanization is an essential determinant of social change. For social change to take place, the process of urbanization requires extensive management (through urban governance). This paper outlines the context of Zimbabwe’s urban governance system by focusing on the historical and recent trends in urban governance and urbanization. In particular, our emphasis is placed on how pre- and post-colonial governments advanced social change through urban governance. In both pre- and post-independence Zimbabwe, local government is a political reality that ruling regimes manipulates, associates with and advance political interests. Politics continue to shape and destabilize a functioning, independent, and autonomous form of urban governance in Zimbabwe. Urban governance remains under incessant threat from central government. Central-local government contestations are leading to poor service delivery; a development that is affecting social change. The article argues that the politics, governance, and institutional behaviors in urban centers of Zimbabwe deteriorated severely calling for a restructuring of urban governance.     

The Intergovernmental Regime and Public Policy in Hartford,Connecticut

Regime theorists have not included state government as a member of urban governing coalitions even though governors and state legislatures have the constitutional authority and fiscal resources that can facilitate local governance. In this research, I analyze economic development and education policies in Hartford, Connecticut to illustrate that the governor is a leader of Hartford’s regime. Like other regime actors, the governor provides selective inducements to other coalition members to gain support for his policies. The Hartford regime came to include the governor because the city lost much of its business and political leadership, and management and accountability problems crippled public policy. Because governors have the capacity to act as a powerful regime partner, it is important to study the effect they have on urban governance.     

Producing the Capacity to Govern in Global Sydney: A Multiscaled Account

Abstract Critiques of urban regime theory suggest the need for a more nuanced approach to the tangled scalar geographies that constitute urban governance. This article moves towards such an approach by adopting urban regime theory's focus on urban politics but conducts its analyses through a multiscalar lens. It demonstrates how processes operating across multiple scales intersect in the production of local governance. The article focuses on the social production of urban governance in Sydney, Australia, specifically examining the city's changing scalar context and scale politics. It suggests that scale‐sensitive regime analyses can make important contributions to theoretical development concerning the multiscalar complexities of governance.     

Growth Politics In Tampa And Hillsborough County: Strains in the Privatistic Regimes

ABSTRACT: This article examines political regimes in Tampa and Hillsborough County during the post-World War II period. A privatist-corporate regime characterized Tampa's politics and policy until the late 1980s. A more pluralistic regime took hold during the administration of Mayor Sandy Freedman. The County's politics moved from a caretaker to a privatist-corporate regime during the 1980s. This regime was soon challenged by civic and environmental groups and a growth management regime is now becoming dominant. The regime transition in the county opens the possibility for a more community oriented regime to coalesce in the city.     

REGIME BUILDING,INSTITUTION BUILDING: URBAN RENEWAL POLICY IN CHICAGO, 1946–1962

ABSTRACT: Urban regime analysis emphasizes the role of coalition building in creating a capacity to govern in cities. Through a case study of urban renewal policy in postwar Chicago, this article considers the role played by political institutions. Conceptualizing this historical period as one of regime building, I show how existing political institutions were out of sync with the city's new governing agenda of urban renewal and redevelopment following World War II. Creating a capacity to govern in urban renewal policy required both coalition building and a fundamental reworking of formal governing institutions.     

Let's Put On a Show! Performing Arts and Urban Revitalization in Newark,New Jersey

The development of new cultural facilities has become a key aspect of urban economic development strategy. This article analyzes the confluence of interests that brings public officials, arts entrepreneurs, and arts patrons together in support of these projects. The case of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center is Newark is offered as an example. Here, the state government took the lead, city officials, private sector interests and the arts community have all mobilized to bring about the arts center's creation. The center's development process is discussed and its impact evaluated.     

>Racializing Regime Politics

This article considers in what ways Clarence Stone’s urban regime paradigm is a useful framework for analyzing African American politics in cities. The article begins with a critical appraisal by Jeffrey Edwards that largely dismisses Stone’s study of Atlanta. It then offers a different interpretation of Stone’s scholarship, showing where Edwards shortchanges Stone’s framework and where his criticisms seem appropriate. The article then discusses how Adolph Reed Jr.’s black urban regime paradigm enhances Stone’s regime politics approach.     

REGIONAL GROWTH MANAGEMENT REGIME: The Case of Portland,Oregon

ABSTRACT: Students of regime politics have tacitly agreed that the geographic limits of the regime will be the city limits or, at most, the boundaries of the metropolitan area. This is understandable in light of the fact that much of the regime literature focuses on the politics of urban development, that is, the politics involved in the implementation of growth strategies. However, if a ruling political coalition pursues the objective of achieving a plan of growth management for an entire urban region, environmental, land use, and regulatory considerations come into play that have implications far beyond the city limits. In that case, it becomes essential for the regime to establish a regional political base. In this article, I consider the sources of support for such a regime by focusing on the case of Portland, Oregon. I also consider the implications for regime theory of an urban regime that accepts the daunting challenge of constructing a system of regional growth management, as well as a regime that is not confined to a particular urban area.     

Does Racial Segregation Make Community‐Based Organizations More Territorial? Evidence from Newark,NJ, and Jersey City,NJ

This article contributes to research on urban nonprofit community‐based organizations (CBOs) by exploring how high racial/ethnic segregation within a city creates a context wherein CBOs become territorial. CBOs have long been recognized for their role in providing services to the urban disadvantaged. Organizations with a strong sense of territoriality typically have robust ties with their base neighborhoods, very thorough in supporting residents in those places. After interviewing 40 CBO staffers in Newark, NJ, and Jersey City, NJ, I identify three paths through which the condition of high segregation in a city leads to territorial CBOs: (1) demographically, organizations become associated with bounded, racially segregated neighborhoods; (2) politically, racially motivated political contention compels organizations to identify more closely with their base neighborhoods; and (3) financially, disadvantage concentrated along racial/ethnic lines contributes to concentrated funding efforts for the city's nonprofit sector, which in turn places greater scrutiny on where organizations situate.     

A NEW NEW ORLEANS? UNDERSTANDING THE ROLE OF HISTORY AND THE STATE–LOCAL RELATIONSHIP IN THE RECOVERY PROCESS

ABSTRACT: Two years after Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans, the city still struggles to rebuild and recover. In this article, we examine how deeply rooted historical patterns of state–local conflict reasserted themselves even after the terrible destruction of Katrina and the redemptive promise of a new beginning. We also explain how state government, some city leaders, and most New Orleanians took advantage of the opportunities presented by Hurricane Katrina to change certain aspects of governance in New Orleans. This research highlights the importance of the state–local relationship in understanding urban affairs and the critical nature of historical patterns and their persistence. State–local conflicts over finances, control of local politics, and cultural differences have plagued New Orleans for decades, and they continue to do so in the post‐Katrina era.     

NEW RULES FOR THE GROWTH GAME: The Use of Rational State Standards in Land Use Policy

ABSTRACT: Cities and states are searching for responses to the demands of urban growth which will allow growth to continue while diminishing the associated problems. The broad policy choices center on the need to continue private development efficiency through the free market and the need to protect the public interest equity through public regulatory protection. Growth politics is a politicized arena, reflecting the biases exhibited within local government. While the growth machine and antigrowth coalition contribute to growth politics, this is not the only plausible scenario. Local government may act as a conservative growth facilitator in the traditional growth politics explanation, but local government can also seek to manage growth using some of the same political machinations. One alternative is for state government to assist local government to balance economic and political rationality through mandated state growth standards. This can be accomplished by using a policy vehicle such as comprehensive planning. In this way, government moves beyond the growth machine scenario and local government may act as a growth manager. Intergovernmental policy support can be an important political force in shaping growth politics.     

Urban Regime Theory: A Normative‐Empirical Critique

Over the past 10 years, urban regime theory has become the dominant paradigm for studying urban politics in liberal democracies. Yet there is disagreement about how far it can help us to understand urban political processes. This article argues that regime theory is best understood as a theory of structuring with limits in its analysis of the market economy. These limits undermine its ability to explain the importance of political agency—the scope of individual or collective choice in political decisions and the impact of those choices in the evolution of US cities. It is further argued that there are important normative dimensions to urban regime theory, most fully articulated in Elkin’s commercial republic, which academic commentaries have not acknowledged. However, the empirical analysis developed in regime theory contradicts its normative objectives. The absence of a conceptualization of market dynamics, in the light of pessimism about the prospects for equitable regime governance, not only limits it as a theory of structuring but it also renders it unable to explain how the commercial republic can be realized. Regime theory is, therefore, unconvincing for two reasons. It cannot explain how much local politics matter, and it fails to demonstrate that its normative goal—more equitable regime governance—can be achieved, given the realities of the US market economy. Regime theory needs a more developed understanding of structuring. It may be fruitful, therefore, for regime theorists to re‐engage critically with variants of Marxism, which unlike Structuralism, recognize the possibility of agency.     

THE LOCAL COMMUNITY: MAKER OF CULTURE AND WEALTH

ABSTRACT: By emphasizing the causal importance of history and the autonomy of local economic and political actors, urban regime theory goes a long way toward mitigating the economic determinism that characterizes so much urban political economy. Unlike this body of criticism that hinges on the demonstrated importance of political factors and is often coupled with undemonstrated assertions that culture, like politics, also matters, this paper shows with theoretical and empirical specificity how local institutions, beliefs, values, norms, and traditions shape local regimes. It presents a synthesis of several closely related arguments regarding preference formation and then presents a framework for investigating the role of social structures and culture in shaping different images of the city and its experience with growth. The author presents lessons from two case studies that utilize this framework and concludes with a discussion of the evidence and arguments presented here and their implications for theory building.